3: How to use databases in sports medicine research

A database is an organised collection of related information, stored in a format that enables efficient retrieval. Anyone who is undertaking or analysing research in sports medicine will inevitably use databases, with or without realising it. The power of internet is only possible due to search engines, which are powered by massive databases containing information (in the form of key words) about millions of websites. The ability to thoroughly review a topic in sports medicine requires the use of a literature database such as Medline (PubMed) or SportDiscus. Primary research in sports medicine has been possible in the past without recording results in a database, but as the average numbers of subjects in studies increase from dozens to hundreds and thousands, databases will be essential to efficiently manage the greater amounts of information. When papers are ready for submission to journals, Citation databases such as EndNote, Reference Manager and ProCite can ease the arduous process of correctly formatting the bibliography for the various journals. Strictly speaking, the term “database” refers to the organised collection of data (the information itself in its ordered form). However, the term database is often also used to describe the structure for the information, or even the program used to create this structure. For example, a day surgery unit may have a Microsoft Access file containing data about operations performed at the unit. The term “database” is often used to describe the program (Microsoft Access), the structure of the file written to record all of the operative details (without the data itself), or the file containing all of the data (which is the true meaning of database).